The negligible amount of weight increase my scale has shown has not bothered me; it is an expected part of the fasting/rebuilding process. I love for the scale numbers to only decrease, but it is certainly not discouraging nor upsetting! Since my end-of-fast weigh-in, I have regained a touch over 1.5 pounds. Of that 1.5 lbs., fat composes 0.1 lb., 1 full pound is water, 0.37 is muscle mass, and 0.4 lbs is bone mass. My BMI increased a miniscule amount, but more importantly, my BMR and muscle mass both increased fractionally. I need some big gains on BMR and muscle mass, while the fat% continues to decrease! On Sunday, once I downed enough salt and electrolytes, the morning headache diminished and I felt good the rest of the day. I was feeling a bit "bloaty" yesterday after lunch, but that diminished as the day passed. I felt hungry when I went to bed last night. I also noticed a touch of hunger a few hours after dinner, which felt odd, and I kept questioning myself as to whether it was genuine hunger, digestion, or mental hunger. I stayed up an hour later than usual, and lying in bed to read, my stomach was rumbling and rowling with hunger. I’ve had a bit of a runny nose since breaking the fast, too. Akin to allergies, but I don’t have allergies! My nose is all runny in the morning for an hour upon waking, then it just stops. My ketone levels have dropped since Friday. I’ve been in a powerful state of ketosis (above 4) for the last week, and the numbers have decreased to just above 1 Mmol/L as of last night. 1 is still in ketosis, but it’s borderline. Admittedly, I had tsampa (Tibetan roasted barley flour cereal), for lunch yesterday; counting that in with a few servings of yoghurt added enough carbs to kick me out of ketosis, or at least dampen the effect considerably. Over the course of the past few days, my carb intake has soared — well, all my macros and kcals. have quadrupled, unsurprisingly! Saturday’s CHO amount increased by 30 g. to 47 g. of CHO, and yesterday I got up to nearly 60 g. Today I will tone it down and add more fat. I am monitoring my tea/coffee creamer intake. Saturday, only 5 g. CHO came from soymilk and half & half. And yesterday, only 3 g. for creamers. It seems my carb intake from creamers is not as bad as I thought! Changing from dairy to soymilk last month reduced both calorie and carb intake substantially. Currently, I only add a bit of dairy in the morning if I “need” some extra creaminess, and then in my post-prandial java, I add two Tbsp. of HWC or half & half. Today I switched to coconut oil, but it appears this was unnecessary. Saturday, 30 g. carbs came from my stewed tomato and okra soup. On Sunday, Tsampa, yoghurt, veggie soups, and Chyawanprash accounted for close to 50 carb grams. Even substantially reducing yoghurt and eliminating Tsampa results in nearly 40 g. carbs total for the day. I’m hoping that I can get back into higher ketosis, since most of those carbs derive from the veggie soups, which are really helping my digestion to wake up! I’m going to try scrambled eggs and avo for brekkie to see how that feels on my tummy. So far (digestion), so good! Tomorrow, I’ll gently add in some meat—again in the form of a puree with pate and mousse. I’ve never made these French dishes, so I’m excited to try! I’ll also make some fish mousse. Prep is simple: saute, stew, or otherwise cook the protein; add some wine, cream, herbs, and seasonings; then blend until creamy! I can also add aspic, which is the gelee of bone broth (collagen) that firms when chilled. I already have this healthy collagen-filled broth gelee in my frig! At present, I am considering when to begin my next ADF. My re-feeding protocol includes 39-hour ADF starting the second week of re-feeding, unless I begin this week, on Day 5-7. At this point, I still feel hungry. I will take it day-by-day and listen to the wisdom my body offers. I’d like to start on Day 6 or Day 7 at the latest, but it’s vital that I give my body adequate time to rebuild after such a long fast of 25 days. Fasting is physiologically stressful, and I want to ensure a healthy rebuild period before I attempt an EF again. I will not start another EF fast until spring-time, as it is detrimental to fast for long periods in cold weather or fall/winter months (according to TCM and Ayurveda). EF weakens Qi too much in a season where Qi is naturally diminishes because of cold weather and the slowing-down hibernation period that is wintertime. Today begins an exciting day as I go for my first run since leaving China! I may have run a few times in Australia, but not consistently, and not enough to count for much. I don’t expect to run long or far; a full minute would be a victory after a year of sedentary couch blobbing, and actually more than that since my decline into the black hole began in late 2018. Time to go! I just saw a white rabbit and I'm going to follow it... heeheehee! I am NOT kidding!
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